Punjab Congress rift widens as Channi camp digs in its heels against Warring

It was meant to broker a truce in the Congress party’s Punjab unit but ended up exacerbating factional fault lines. With former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi by his side, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the party did not need “compromised leaders”, signalling that their meeting with Congress’s Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel minutes earlier had failed to resolve the leadership crisis in the state unit.

Also read | Baghel rejects change in Punjab Congress leadership: 'Not gudda-guddi ka khel'

The meeting, hosted by senior MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh at his Chandigarh residence on Saturday (July 11), came 10 days after the Congress high command’s decision to retain Amarinder Singh Raja Warring as the Punjab Congress chief set off a wave of resentment among various intra-party factional leaders.

Congress’ truce bid falters

On June 6, Baghel arrived in Chandigarh for a five-day damage control visit but was immediately rebuffed by Channi and Randhawa – once rivals but now united in their opposition to Raja Warring – who, sources say, conveyed to the party’s Punjab in-charge that they had no interest in meeting him and would rather wait for an audience with Rahul Gandhi. Baghel, widely viewed within the Punjab Congress as being partisan towards Raja Warring, too dug in his heels. He told reporters earlier this week that the high command decision was not a “gudda-guddi ka khel” (child’s play) and “will not be reconsidered” under pressure.

Sources said with multiple party leaders, including veteran leader Ambika Soni and Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, being roped in to break the stalemate, the party had hoped for a breakthrough when the Channi camp agreed to finally meet Baghel on Saturday. Sources said Channi and Randhawa, however, conveyed to Baghel that they would meet him at the residence of Rana Gurjeet instead of the Punjab Congress office and that they do not want Raja Warring present at the meeting. After some resistance, Baghel conceded.

On Saturday morning, even before Baghel arrived at Rana Gurjeet’s residence, it was evident that the Channi camp was keen to use the meeting as yet another show of strength. As opposed to the 60-odd party leaders who had turned up at Channi’s residence in Morinda soon after the July 1 announcement of Raja Warring’s continuation as PCC chief, the Saturday meeting saw over 90 party leaders in attendance.

Nearly every senior leader not aligned with Raja Warring turned up, including Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, whose frosty relations with both Channi and Randhawa are well known. Others present included Aruna Chaudhary, Pargat Singh, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Gurkirat Kotli, Barindermeet Singh Pahra, Muhammad Sadiq and Bharat Bhushan Ashu.

Baghel faces fierce criticism

A senior party MLA who was present at the meeting told The Federal that it was clear from the moment Baghel arrived that the discussions wouldn’t yield any breakthrough. “Right from the start, the only message every single person at the meeting had was that Baghel was responsible for Raja Warring being retained as PCC chief and no one trusted him to act impartially in truthfully conveying the sentiments of the leaders present to the high command…. Baghel made it clear at the outset that the high command cannot be intimidated into changing its decision. Obviously there was no meeting ground right from the start… Channi, Randhawa, Partap Singh Bajwa and most others who spoke gave specific examples of how Raja Warring had ruined the party in Punjab,” the MLA said.

Also read | Punjab Congress unity bid falters as Channi camp demands Warring’s removal

Though Baghel is learnt to have repeatedly assured the leaders present that he would convey their reservations against Raja Warring and suggestions for strengthening the party to the high command, he too came in for scathing criticism from Randhawa, Raja Gurjeet and several others for “acting in the interest of Raja Warring and not the Congress”.

Sources said the Channi camp “made it clear” that not only did they want Raja Warring benched but also kept out of the candidate selection process for next year’s Punjab Assembly polls. Baghel is learnt to have categorically rejected the demand to exclude Raja Warring from all election related matters of the party but told the leaders that he would convey their views to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and AICC’s organisational general secretary KC Venugopal.

That neither Channi nor Randhawa or even the usually conciliatory Partap Singh Bajwa accompanied Baghel to address the press after the meeting was a clear sign of how badly the meeting went. Baghel sought hard to downplay the escalating conflict within the party by telling reporters that the party remains united and he had received suggestions which he would pass on to the central leadership. Moments later, addressing the media separately, Randhawa and Channi punctured Baghel’s unity message.

Congress crisis far from over

Contrary to Baghel’s assertion that the high command’s decisions, once announced, “are not reconsidered”, Randhawa said, “We all acknowledged that sometimes certain decision of the party must be reversed.” The former deputy chief minister added, “We want a Congress government in Punjab… to achieve this, we need unity within the party but we also need leaders who speak boldly and decisively; we do not need compromised leaders.” Though Randhawa refused to explain who in the party he felt was compromised, it was clear that his barb was directed at Raja Warring, who several leaders present at the meeting with Baghel had accused of being in cahoots with the Aam Aadmi Party.

Also read | Punjab Congress crisis: Baghel holds meetings, assures 'everything will be fine'

Interestingly, Channi, who has emerged as the fulcrum of the anti-Raja Warring bloc, refused to make any comments to the press despite standing beside Randhawa during the briefing. “We had decided he (Randhawa) will brief on our behalf,” Channi said.

Raja Warring, who had stayed away from the meeting as per the Channi camp’s demand, tried hard to downplay the stir caused by Randhawa’s remark. “As far as I know, he (Randhawa) has not named anyone so why are you all pointing fingers at me and calling me compromised. I agree with him that we should not have any compromised leaders,” Raja Warring said.

With Baghel now returning to Raipur without any success in resolving the Punjab crisis, sources said the Channi camp is expected to head to Delhi soon and seek an audience with the party high command. Whether they would succeed in elbowing Raja Warring out or, instead, be ticked off by Kharge and Rahul for publicly embarrassing the party by challenging the high command’s diktat remains to be seen. What is evident, though, is that eight months ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls, the Congress appears to be sliding back into conflict with itself instead of regrouping to take on the ruling AAP.